In the blog How did I end up at Franklin College of Indiana, I shared how I ended up at Franklin College of Indiana. While at Franklin, I majored in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics. My interest in Computer Science started when I was around ten, thanks to my uncle Leslie, a software engineer. Leslie let me use his laptop to play video games, watch youtube videos and play music. Once I got bored of playing video games and watching videos, I asked Leslie what I needed to do to be a software engineer like him. Back then, I only knew I wanted a laptop, and being a software engineer was the only way to get a “free laptop.”
Leslie shared his path of becoming a software engineer, which involved learning to program. To get me started early, Leslie began to teach me how to program using Microsoft Visual Basic. Additionally, I was fortunate to attend a secondary school where computer science was a subject. This allowed me to take programming classes for four years before attending college. By the time I got to college, I was set on being a Computer Science major. My major allowed me to secure two internships on Wall Street and another internship at a manufacturing engineering company. Had I not seen someone I identified with being involved in technology, I wouldn’t have been exposed to the field and wouldn’t be doing what I do now. This is one of the reasons I am sharing my story on this blog so that I can be an example for someone needing a person in technology to identify with.
Going into college, l knew I wanted to study Computer Science to become a software engineer. Although my Computer Science curriculum required me to take several math classes, being a math major never crossed my mind. My first academic advisor and math professor Dr. Gash recommended I double major in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics. Dr. Gash had done the same major(s) in his undergrad. One of the reasons for this suggestion was that I was doing well in math classes, and I only needed to add a few more classes to have an applied mathematics major.
Coming from Zimbabwe, there are few opportunities for a math major besides being a math teacher. My upbringing had blinded me since I wasn’t aware of the options math majors got; hence a math major wasn’t on my radar. Thanks to US job market exposure, I learned that math majors could get jobs as investment bankers, traders, data analysts, data scientists, insurance brokers, actuaries, market research analysts, financial analysts, statisticians, etc. This information convinced me to add a mathematics major. Also, given that I used a lot of my math background in computer science, I figured more math classes would also improve my reasoning skills.
I am glad I double majored in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics. I work in an analytics role where I leverage programming for data mining and statistics for analyzing data and providing insights and recommendations. To learn more about how I used my double major to get an internship, please to this blog, and to know how I used my double major to get a full-time job in technology, please check out this blog.
1 thought on “Why did I study Computer Science and Applied Mathematics in undergrad?”
Comments are closed.